I am a progressive educator, a podcaster (EdTechTalk.com/21cl), a blogger, and dean of faculty of JK-11 school (building a high school) in New York City.
Microsoft previews the highly touch-centric Windows 8 operating system. I like the idea of tiles, but wonder if that is the ideal interface metaphor for the next shift. I'm already victim of app fatigue, I wonder if tile fatigue is next. I don't mean to be a doubter, this looks quite beautiful. Just keeping up with the change right now seems to be overwhelming for technologists, let alone users.
via @rcuza
Customers will be able to borrow Kindle books from over 11,000 local libraries to read on Kindle and free Kindle reading apps Whispersyncing of notes, highlights and last page read to work for Kindle library books
Wow, in an incredible marketplace move, Amazon announced that later this year over 11,000 libraries will offer the ability to take out books on any Kindle (the actual device, iPad, iPhone, Android phone, etc). You will be able to highlight and annotate in the books. Then, if you check that book out again, or buy it, it preserves your annotations. It is definitely worth thinking about as schools watch e-reader developments.
I personally have read 10 books via the Kindle app on my Android phone. I have loved it, but have some critiques. That is for another post, I suppose.
Here is the article on Amazon's website, although via an odd URL that they seem to use for news releases.
The title of this post is certainly meant as a joke, but I thought it was catchy. I do worry about the future of books, but that is for another post...
This is as much a note to myself as to any of my readers, but ed tech folks need to be careful about promising too much to leaders who agree to blog 'n' tweet. John Maeda, President of RISD, via MIT Media Lab, gets it. He uses social media in excellent ways. But, being an individual user does not lead to school-wide adoption or school-wide change. You need to bring people along in the sharing game, help them see how social media makes them better at their jobs. He should be able to struggle through this, but it will take more than tweets and blog posts...
More on his struggles via the Fast Company article
Rigid, narrow codes of tradition masculinity and femininity drive poorer reproductive health outcomes, homophobia and gender-based violence. This is especially true among at-risk youth, like those who are of color or LGBT.To improve outcomes, there has been an increased focus and commitment on "gender transformative” interventions and policies. Gender Transformative approaches question, challenge and change rigid gender norms and inequities. Major international donors–like PEPFAR, UNAIDS, USAID and WHO–have already endorsed Gender Transformative interventions.
Truechild.org is a wonderful resource for grappling with the issue of combating traditional gender norms for young people. This is essential reading/understanding for all educators. Use TrueChild's "learn the facts" section to get yourself up to speed, fast. Our kids need us on this issue as much as any other.